 Dr.
Peter Agre, University Professor and Director at John Hopkins Malaria
Research Institute, Bloomberg School of Public Health, is the second
recipient of the prestigious $50,000 prize from the Will Rogers
Institute. In 2003, Peter shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
for discovering aquaporins, protein channels within membranes that
allow the movement of water across the membrane. Aquaporins are
responsible for numerouse physiological processes in humans and are
implicated in multiple clinical disorders including fluid retention,
bedwetting, brain edema, cataracts, heat prostration and obesity.
Aquaporins also play an important role in the normal physiology and
disease in the human airways. Chronic lung injury and lung fibrosis is
associated with decreased protein and mRNA expression of aqauporins in
the lung. Due to Dr. Agre's work, researchers around the world now
study aquaporins in many species of plants, bacteria and animals and
have linked aberrant water transport to a multitude of human diseases
and conditions. Currently, Dr. Agre presides over a team of 20
scientists working on everything from designing malaria vaccines to
engineering a malaria-resistant mosquito that in theory could
out-compete others if released in the wild.Born in Northfiled,
Minnesota, Peter received his B.A. from Augsburg College in
Minneapolis, Minnesota and his M.D. in 1974 from John Hopkins
University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He served as Vice
Chancellor for science and technology at Duke University Medical Center
in Durham, NC, where he guided the development of Duke's biomedical
research. Agre became director at JHMRI and joined the faculty of hte
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on January 1, 2008. He
was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 2000
and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. He is also
founding member of Scientists and Engineers for America (SEA), and
serves on its Board of Advisors.The Will Rogers Institute's Annual Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Lung Research was
created to honor individuals for extraordinary work leading to
advancements in treatment for lung diseases. The first award was
presented to Dr. Francis Collins for his work in identifying the Cystic
Fibrosis gene.
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